Park Seed Garden Journal

Seriously – it doesn’t matter how hectic or demanding a day at work seems, I always enter the building in the morning with a sense of awe that I work here – a place from which my family, friends, and I have ordered countless plants in the past.  In fact, I have an uncle that orders his seed almost exclusively from Park.  When I told him I started working here, he got quite excited and admitted to ordering a few hundred dollars worth of seed and seed-starting supplies EVERY YEAR!  I guess I credit him with cultivating my early passion for gardening since we grew up next door, his garden just a path’s walk away anytime my brothers and I felt the need to wander or explore. Nadia – I’ll ask him to round up some old pictures of his garden to share on the blog.  Yeah, early 80′s pictures of me wallowing around in my uncle’s garden should be entertaining.

To the point – we just went on an "official" plant tour led by our illustrious and highly entertaining PR Director, and I’ll have to say that even though the tour was meant for new employees, I was impressed all over again with the way things run around here.  All the procedures, quality control measures, and tedious hours spent making sure the seeds and plants are in tip-top shape.  Oh, the plants!  I remember my first plant tour was near the end of spring, and I had a hard time keeping a brisk pace with the rest of the group when we passed the live plant packing area.  I wanted one of everything – and still do!  My husband is desperately hoping that feeling will pass. When break comes, I find myself incontrollably wandering out to the Garden Center to see what’s new.  When payday comes, I also find myself incontrollably emptying my wallet on those new introductions.  I’ve got a special "holding area" in my garden now for all the purchased plants I don’t have room for yet.  Hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to work on new bed for fall planting.  I’ve been experimenting with lasagna gardening (aka – sheet mulching) to build beds, and it’s working out like a charm.

Anyway – Nadia, since you’re in PR, I was wondering if you could share a little more about some of the quality control measures we have in place in the seed room.  For some reason, I get all giddy around bags of seed piled ceiling high, too.  Maybe I’m just weird like that… maybe not.  I’ve been planting some cool-weather crops recently, and when I plant seed, I wax intellectual, pondering the life of a seed – the botany of it all and whatnot.  Touring the seed room made me wonder about all those seeds sitting there in an arrested state and how we keep them viable for so long. 

Help me out, lady!

Anita

anita.dover@gmail.com

Well, Anita, I am glad you remembered me purchasing my first, soon-to-be beautiful Park Seed echinaceas. I was extremely excited because they are so pretty and I just found out that coneflowers are one of South Carolina’s native wildflowers. Unfortunately, I think I killed them. Yeah, I know, a native wildflower can strive on its own, but somehow I managed to kill them. I got so wrapped up in unpacking boxes in my new home, I never managed to take the plant out of the little black container and plant it into the ground. Maybe I’ll try again when I know they won’t be neglected.

As for your green coneflower…

I really like the green coloring. Maybe a disease-free green coneflower will be invented some day — I would probably try to grow one of those. If it ever quits raining, I’m going to see if the roots of my echinacea are still holding the soil together (meaning there may be a glimmer of hope) and plant them. Cross your fingers that they are alive!!

Praying for survival,

Nadia

nvanderhall@gmail.com

Dearest Nadia,

A few weeks back you purchased your first Purple Coneflower, ‘Fatal Attraction’ (right), from our Garden Center.  You were so excited, asking me all kinds of questions about when to plant it, how to care for it, etc.  I recall not telling you too much, saying that Coneflowers pretty much take care of themselves, but I thought I’d give you a bit more guidance, just to set your mind at ease.

Their name comes from the Greek word Echinos, meaning "hedgehog".  I’m sure you noticed the prickly center on the flowers you bought. I actually had a hedgehog once, and their spines are remarkably similar – except one is an animal and one is a plant.  How cool is that?!

Purple Coneflowers, Echinacea purpurea, are native to Eastern North America – perfect since that’s where you happen to live.  Even if you didn’t live in this region, Coneflowers are cold hardy to Zone 3 – thirty below zero!  They’re also some of the most heat-tolerant plants, sticking out even the most unbearable, droughty summers.  They’re perfect "beginner" plants for gardeners because they take extreme neglect and keep on pumping out the most astounding flowers all season, and there are so many new varieties coming out each year that even experienced gardeners have something to look forward to – saucy yellows, reds, and oranges, like ‘Sundown’ (right) and even classic pinks and whites in neat new flower forms, like ‘Doubledecker’ (left)!

I always thought these plants were indestructible…that is, until now.  This spring I started noticing one of my plants (which I bought over a decade ago, so long ago I don’t even remember where) wasn’t putting out "normal" looking flowers.  The buds were stunted and green.  A few weeks later, the blooms got bigger and some even formed what looked like separate flowers coming out of the top of the cone – all of them bright green.  I seriously thought my Coneflowers had somehow bred with some other flower (a Rudbeckia?) to come up with a rare, unheard of new cultivar!  I was gonna be rich!  I got excited and called another gardening friend who promptly burst my bubble of joy.  As it turns out, my Coneflower had been infected with Aster Yellows, a disease that is transmitted by sucking insects.  If you ever see a Coneflower bloom out as such, rip it out at once!  I know what you’re thinking – after so lovingly tending a plant, how could you possibly be so cruel and rip it out as if you had no heart?  Well, first lesson of gardening – sometimes Mother Nature throws you a curve and your feelings get hurt.  If a plant is diseased, you might as well save yourself future headache and – sorry for the cliched pun – nip it in the bud. 

So, I sent my husband out to get a picture of it before I tossed it in the trash (not in the compost – you don’t want to transmit disease, right?), and look at what he found!  A preying mantis had taken residence on that very plant!  I feel sure he was only looking out for the future well-being of my other Coneflowers and eating any of the infamous sucking insects that spread the disease, but, alas, I had to move him to another part of the garden to continue his good deeds! 

By the way – I saw him (the mantis) again last night.  He (or she) was stalking a baby anole (little green lizards), who was none too pleased about being a potential dinner for a bug bigger than he was!  I’ll try to get another photo of him because he’s HUGE now.  I sure hope it’s a female and lays an egg case – they’re one of the best beneficial insects a garden can have.

Hope you found this interesting!

See you in the garden,

Anita

anita.dover@gmail.com

Anita-

Thanks a million for the crash course in Tulips. You almost sounded like a professional…

I really look forward to planting the two Tulips I liked so much, the Tulip Huis ten Bosch and the Mona Lisa. I hope you look forward to answering the questions I’m sure to come across! Who knows, maybe I’ll try using this info as a quick reference guide instead of pestering you — but I doubt it!

Buried in Knowledge,

Nadia

nvanderhall@gmail.com

So, Nadia, I mentioned earlier that there are 100 species in the genus Tulipa. Most, such as Darwin hybrid Tulips, have a varied botanical ancestry. Thousands of named Tulips exist with hundreds of new ones appearing every year as a result of extensive breeding. So, to make any sense of grouping Tulips by characteristics, they are generally classified as such:

Division I – Single Early: Single flowers. Early season. Approx. height –12” to 18". Ex: ‘Apricot Beauty’.

Division II – Double Early: Full, double flowers. Early season. Approx.height – 12” to 20".

Division III – Triumph: Cross between Single Early and Late-flowering. Comes in a wide range of colors. Mid season. Approx. height – 20" to 24”. Ex: ‘Wendy Love’, ‘Denmark’, ‘Dynasty’.

Read the rest of this entry »

Nadia,

With such wild and unique varieties as you’ve found, you might expect Tulips to have a history to match. I figure before I tell you about the different kinds, I need to give some account of their rise to fame.

Tulips have a background steeped in legend and lore and aren’t actually "from" the Netherlands (Holland) as most people believe. The genus Tulipa consists of about 100 species, most of which are native to southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia from Iran to Japan. The most diversity in the Tulip genus is found in and around the Hindu Kush mountains and Kazakhstan. The Tulip is even the national flower of Iran and Turkey, where it is featured in much of that region’s folk art. The Europeanized name, Tulip, probably came from the Turkish word for turban, "Tulliband", because of the traditional custom of wearing blooms in one’s turban – that and their folds of thick petals resemble turbans.

How the Tulip made its way to Europe is a somewhat hotly debated topic (amongst people who have better things to do than watch hours of American Idol), but most scholars attribute it to Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq, the Austrian Ambassador from Ferdinand I to the Sultan of Turkey, Suleyman the Magnificent, in the mid 1500’s. It is purported that Busbecq found highly sophisticated hybrids, not wild species, growing in the royal court at Turkey. Busbecq subsequently shipped some of the bulbs he found to Carolus Clusius (Charles de L’Ecluse) in Prague, who is credited for much of the spread of Tulips in Europe and their introduction to Holland when he took control of the botanical gardens in Leyden.

In Turkey, Tulips were cultivated for specific traits and were held to exacting standards much like the judging criteria at Tulip associations and clubs today. The Dutch also had an image of the ideal Tulip, but it was distinguished by "broken" pattern of swirls caused by a mosaic virus spread by aphids and other sucking insects. While the virus itself has been wiped out in Dutch growing fields, some breaking has become genetically fixed to give us our "wild" painted varieties today.

The Dutch went on to fall in love with Tulips, and their popularity reached a fevered pitch in the early 1600’s, a time that has since been referred to as "Tulip Mania." New varieties, some not even in existence yet, were bought, sold, and traded as extremely valuable commodities – some were even paid for with livestock. (Can you imagine trading three cows and a few chickens for one Tulip bulb?) Inflated prices and bogus contracts caused the Tulip speculation bubble to burst and left many Dutch in financial ruin, not to mention livestockless. This didn’t keep the beloved Tulip from becoming one of the Netherlands’ main industries and made the sight of a field of Tulips in bloom a common association with Dutch culture and history.

Thankfully, considerable cultivation and breeding of Tulips continues today with great success.  I’ll give you some information on the different kinds of Tulips later – I’ve got work to do!

See you in the garden,

Anita

anita.dover@gmail.com

I’ve been browsing through the Park Seed website looking at the different kinds of Tulips we offer. There are some pretty wild and unique varieties. If the pictures didn’t have text below them, I would have never known some of the flowers were Tulips. Below are some of the Tulips that made me take a closer look. They are all eye-catching conversation starters! Which also brings a few questions to mind…

Tulip Mona Lisa   

Tulip Huis ten Bosch                                        

Anita —

What are some different kinds of Tulips? What is the proper way to cut Tulips and preserve them for use in arrangements? What is the World’s favorite Tulip? And lastly, are there any special growing instructions for Tulips like the ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘Huis ten Bosch’?

Digging for Knowledge,

Nadia

nvanderhall@gmail.com

Even princesses can enjoy gardening without ever looking dirty outside their gardening gates. I came across a nifty little tip that keeps your hands clean and puts good use to a broken garden tool. This trick could work with almost any broken tool that has an angle to its handle, a three-prong cultivator, garden rake, or a garden hoe. For example, a broken handle on a garden hoe makes the perfect opportunity to put the tool to another use. Simply take the blade of the hoe and position it near your garden hose, handle end up. And voila, you have the perfect outdoor soapdish! To keep your new outdoor soapdish from rusting, mist a little nonstick cooking spray on it.

Digging in the dirt can ruin any manicure. Scrape your fingernails across a bar of soap. The soap will fill the space under your nails, leaving no room for dirt and less trips to your manicurist!

Digging for Knowledge,

Nadia

nvanderhall@gmail.com

Nadia – you are absolutely correct – not everyone knows about bulbs, especially the crown jewels of the bulb world, Tulips.

But we’ll get to those fascinating beauties a bit later.  For now, I’ll start with some basics that would apply to most bulbs so you’ll be ready to plant in fall.

How to Plant Bulbs:
Bulbs are easy to grow — their one basic need is good drainage. If you are planting them in established flowerbeds, chances are you have already provided this at the time you originally prepared the bed for planting.

If you are choosing a new site, here’s how to do it best and most easily. Let’s use 12 Tulips as an example — the only difference with other bulbs will be the depth of planting and the spacing between bulbs.

• Dig a hole large enough to accommodate the group of bulbs (about 1 by 2 feet in this case), about 2 inches deeper than the indicated planting depth (a good rule of thumb for planting depth is two or three times the width of the bulb, but always consult package directions for recommendations before planting).
• Partially fill the hole with about 2 inches of soil and set the bulbs on top, pointed end up. These 2 inches of loose soil under the bulbs will encourage root growth.
• Fill the hole, firm the soil down, and water thoroughly.

Where it is impractical to dig an entirely new bed, as among established plantings, in woodland sites, or in the lawn, use a bulb planter (either hand or foot powered models are available). A core of soil is removed to the proper depth, the bulb is planted in the hole, and the soil, mixed with a generous pinch of fertilizer, is replaced, firmed down, and watered in.

Another means of planting is with a trowel. It should be employed with a stabbing motion, held pointed side down, and concave side toward you. Stab into the soil and pull the loose soil toward you. Do this until the proper depth is reached, then proceed as above.

Read the rest of this entry »

Amaryllis, Anemone, Lycoris, Narcissus all sound like character names in an English lit book I read in college. But I’m way off. Since I don’t know much about plants and plant names, it would make sense that I don’t recognize these items as bulbs. The only familiar name I’ve heard this week is Tulip — and I didn’t even know it was a bulb. I just know that Tulips are my favorite flower and they come from Holland. I have had many calls in the PR department this week regarding bulbs, the whole who, what, where, when, and why thing. My English degree hasn’t paid off in the horticulture department, but I’ve always heard that there is no such thing as a stupid question. With that in mind, I abuse the fact that my office mate is very horticulturally inclined. Asking questions instead of researching can save time and get answers to customers faster anyway, right?! I like to call my learning tool Ask Anita. It’s very similar to  the whole Dear Abby idea. Anyway, here are some of the questions I asked Anita this week to help me do my job better:

What are the basics when caring for bulbs? When is the best time to plant bulbs? When will I see results?

I know my questions are basic and simple, but not everyone knows the buzz on bulbs!

Digging For Knowledge,

Nadia

nvanderhall@gmail.com